I want to earn some side income. Are there any platforms that pay reasonable amounts for short-term contract or gig work for SWEs?
Apparently this became common at some point, "over employment" is a thing now, with a subreddit and everything.
You will need to qualify (there's a couple small tests and I think a short interview) but then you'll be able to one-on-one live code with someone, there are full "freelance projects" available, code reviews, etc. You set your hourly rate (by the 15 minute interval) and the free lance ones are lump sum ($100's - $1000's)
One downside: it has gotten a bit more popular over the years, so if you want to be selected for a gig you'll need to be quick and/or convincing. It's not nearly as bad as something like fiverr or freelancer but I have a tough time getting in on requests even with a 5-star rating (good ones fill up with many offers quickly).
With platforms like Upwork it's really hard to compete with lower-cost devs.
I have a client that I'm trying to fire right now, who, rather than hire me for a longer-term contract, has hired an offshore team of interns that are really struggling. What would have been a long weekend project for me has stretched out into 3 months for them.
1. Job hop into higher salary. For any level, you essentially spend time up front to get the job, then get more money while spending the same time working.
2. Get into real estate. Chances are you make enough money to be able to afford multiple properties, and you can start doing airbnb or straight rentals and earn passive side income without much effort.
Otherwise, if you want to code, the more enjoyable way to make money is to pursue something that you already like doing, so it doesn't feel like work, and monetize it.
I don't really have too much advice since I got lucky and found some great people to work with who provided a chill stream of work when I needed it. But what I did was:
- Contact a lot of small tech companies who had open roles
- Make a pitch that I could help them out part time on a trial basis
- When I got a chance, I made sure to exceed expectations by delivering good work with excellent communication (this led to them giving me more work)
I did try out the Upwork route and really didn't like the kinds of jobs or the level of competition.
But now that I have kids I think that time for contracting is behind me -- I tried doing ~15 hrs a week this year and it was just too much for the family. Fortunately I was able to leverage those contract contacts to get a decent primary job in fintech.
In SF Bay Area - sperm donation.
I do not personally know any SWEs who do this, but a couple of my friends (and me) who work on their startup ideas do.
Link to an example of how much you will get paid.
Here is the math, assuming you are in great health:
one 15 minute visit => 6+ vial Yield => $175
You cannot do it every day. There should be a 2-5 days abstinence period.
=> best case scenario => 3 times a week.
=> 4 weeks * 3 times per week * $175 per donation = $2100
As you can see in that link, there is a $1000 bonus if you make 12 monthly visits.
=> $3300 per month.
This is good for ethical reasons as well -> you help women with an ultra-important personal problem - how to become a mother.
In a time when the population is aging, you help to mitigate this problem with your own hands.
If everything is so good, what is the catch?
Such programs are picky about who they accept, claiming the acceptance rate is 1%.
I do not know what is the quality of the initial pool of candidates, so hard to tell what percent would be for the pool of SWEs that need side income.
P.S. I am quite serious about all of it, as I am part of this program as well, and the link with how much you get paid is for November in the company that I am donating to.
P.P.S. I wish I had known about such an option when I was a graduate student making $1600 / month for teaching. An extra $3k would make a huge difference in the quality of living and how much I could send home.
- Are you currently working as an SWE during your day job?
- Do you just need more money in general, or do you specifically want/need for it to be via an SWE-side-job ?
- Are you located within a short commute of businesses that might need a part-time SWE, or would this need to be hybrid/remote?
- What skills (SWE-related or other) do you have to offer for this side-work?
- What duration(s) are you interested in committing to for a given side-job?
- Are you looking to work as a contractor or as a regular employee?
- Do you have a professional network that you could draw on, or do you need to find opportunities entirely on your own?
An alternative approach might be a marketplace like https://www.moonlightwork.com which I used a handful of years ago but not recently.
I'd strongly recommend forgetting about the gig economy. It's a race to the bottom unless you're willing ti put in multi-year effort to build a portfolio so you can stand out and land larger consulting gigs. This is the reason I say if you need fast cash a second job is the fastest path.
Afterwards, you will have a network of acquaintances who know you, they can roughly estimate what you can help them with, and some might be waiting for you to have some free time to help them solve their company's problems. And then you just pick an interesting problem and solve that. Rinse and repeat. It's not a direct path to profits, but over time it will lead to great work opportunities in areas that you enjoy working in.
(For bug bounties!)
I would rather improve my skills, grow in my career and switch jobs to bump my salary than juggle a side income